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New greyfolk language typeface, syllable blocks, numerals

After working on other pieces of the greyfolk language for so long, I am genuinely proud to present the new typeface: klepalka (it’s in a .zip file since .ttf files aren’t normally allowed by WordPress). The name is just a transliteration of the work ‘greyfolk’ into the greyfolk language. Instead of just containing a few syllable blocks to use as examples, this typeface includes all 420 syllable blocks. It also contains all letters and numerals, of course, but also punctuation!

greyfolk m n p t k s y l h a e i o u
qwerty m n p t k s y l h a e i o u
greyfolk 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F
qwerty 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F
greyfolk , ; . « » ( ) [ ] # ~
qwerty , ; . « » ( ) [ ] # ~

The letters should be pretty self-explanatory.

The numerals work for up to a hexadecimal system, which is why A–F is included. As far as I know, greyfolk (mostly) use a duodecimal system, but, in designing the numerals and learning more about different bases, it made sense to give the numerals a bit more flexibility. There is a pattern to the numerals. On the top, it goes abcd abcd abcd abcd. On the bottom, it goes aaaa bbbb cccc dddd. An ‘a’ is one leg, a ‘b’ is a flat, a ‘c’ is two legs, and a ‘d’ is a circle.

The punctuation is fairly straightforward, but it works a little different in the greyfolk language than it does in English. The comma is a short pause, and it can stand in for or replace the particle «hu» «hu ». The semi-colon is a medium pause, and it can stand in for or replace the particle «syu» «syu ». The em dash is a long pause, and it is used to a similar effect—it ties two phrases together. For each of these punctuation marks, they are dots (or very small marks in this case) that move out horizontally for a longer pause. Then, there comes the period, which marks the end (and sometimes also the beginning) of a sentence, which is two of these dots/marks stacked vertically. The single guillemets are the first level of quotation marks and the double guillemets are the second level of quotation marks. The parentheses look like angle brackets, but they are used for de-emphasis marks, which do function a lot like parentheses, but can also be used to show whispering or an aside. The square brackets are used for emphasis marks, which is kind of like using italics, bold, or even exclamation points. The number sign is a really smushed «hu » because all numerals start with that syllable. Then, there’s the tilde, which I really only added because it’s fun. Oh, and there’s no question mark because greyfolk language has obligatory interrogatives in the language itself.

Syllable blocks have also changed shape again, and they changed back to what they looked like before. The only difference is that vowels are smaller, which really helps with the legibility of the entire syllable.

  • «ma» is a CV syllable and looks like «ma »
  • «mya» is a CCV syllable and looks like «mya »
  • «mam» is a CVC syllable and looks like «mam »
  • «myam» is a CCVC syllable and looks like «myam »

So, nothing crazy there. Though, «m» in the onset position does have a small curve to help with legibility.

It should also be noted that syllable blocks are ligatures in this typeface. It’s definitely not the best system, especially since ligatures have to be manually turned on in some places (like Microsoft Word), but it does work. A sequence of letters turns into its syllable block form when followed by a space. So, «myam» «myam » is typed out as «myam ». Again, it’s a bit hacky, but it works well-enough for my purposes, and I’m very happy with that because I had no experience in designing typefaces going into this. As far as I know, other written languages with syllable blocks (like Korean’s Hangul) use special software, which would be even further out of my range. For now.

Also, yes, I know that the klepalka typeface is sometimes a bit green- or pink-tinted. I see it on Google Chrome on my desktop computer, and I can only assume it’s because of how Google Chrome handles certain typefaces.

For the names of the letters and numbers, I threw together a chart. It could be clearer, though it it’s not too unclear.

letter («syu-») number («hu-») name suffix
h 0 «-han»
m 1 «-mam»
n 2 «-nal»
p 3 «-pal»
t 4 «-tan»
k 5 «-kam»
s 6 «-sla»
y 7 «-yal»
l 8 «-lam»
9 «-mla»
A «-nya»
B «-pya»
C «-tlan»
D «-syam»
E «-nlal»
F «-myan»
10 «-mamhan»
a «-ha»
e «-he»
i «-hi»
o «-ho»
u «-hu»

Thus, 0 is «huhan» «hu han ». The number names are pretty final (other than B–F, which aren’t very important to me), but the letter names aren’t set in stone. For counting or reciting the alphabet, repeating the prefixes isn’t necessary so long as there is a comma. Counting to duodecimal ten would go like this: «huhan, mam, nal, pal, tan, kam, sla, yal, lam, mla, nya, pya, mamhan». There may be a way to shorten numbers in the future, but that’s something else that I haven’t figured out yet as it might conflict with other disyllabic roots.

That’s it!

With the typeface as done as it needs to be, my goal is to start fleshing out the lexicon with disyllabic roots and words. And trisyllabic, I guess. So, I’ll be working on polysyllabic roots and words. If I can get a few hundred words, I can start talking about and using sentences, which means more fun syntax and grammar stuff. Right now, I can only saw a few things, like «me plo ,‹kle san ›».

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